Ephemeral
by jackass in the box
Summary: Monologues have always ended in death. /for Rowan and Saph /for the Palace prompts
1. Red

**Using Caesar's Palace Prompts. Prompt: red**

**Many thanks to Johanna (turtledoves) for her wonderful beta reading.**

**Gift to Saph and Rowan as congratulations on their wedding c:**

* * *

Walk downstairs, love, and look at the veins in the walls and maybe if you stare long enough they'll start to pulse, but that won't make this place any more alive.

Talk to the fruit in the walls and maybe if you speak loudly enough they'll respond, but that won't make this place any more alive.

Sing to the parrots and maybe if you scream beautifully enough they'll pick up on the fact that you need some companionship, but that won't make this place any less dead.

_You got me a manor but I'd trade it for your thoughts back._

* * *

"Once upon a time, a little girl was born to two proud parents. They named her Clove, because her mother liked plants (and herbs), and her father liked weapons (nails would do), and the name just _fi__t_ like that.

"The little girl grew up, dark haired, dark eyed, cheerful. She liked cakes, and the color red, and watching the television, and a lot of other things.

"Then one day, her parents thought it would be a good idea to send her to school, because that was what all the other parents were doing, and their kids turned out all right, right? They sat her down and gave her a talk and she didn't understand (they could see that), but she agreed to go with them anyway, because she thought big houses, pretty dresses, and being famous would be fun (and her parents feel the same way and tell her so)."

.

_She is seven when she first hits a bulls-eye._

_She is fifteen when she first hits a bulls-eye that matters._

Clove first likes school a lot, especially since she is very good at almost everything. She has many admirers, since she is the tallest girl in her class and plays with knives very well.

But that soon changes.

_Big things. Big plans. Big head._

Saturday is movie night.

Her parents visit her on the weekends, looking happy and in love, less tired. She hates them for leaving her here. She wonders if they know what they do to her here. Her parents don't seem to notice the bandages around her arms, even when she puts them on the talk-table. Maybe they're just ignoring them on purpose.

Clove watches some more films to calm herself. She is strangely upset when they stop coming every week and only visit her for holidays.

.

She is thirteen when she becomes a young woman, but the first time she bleeds is at eight when the instructor cuts her chest as part of a lesson to _remember, defense is important._

Clove learns that forgiveness brings failure when he slashes her arm just a week later and screams at her for being careless ("we went over this move before!") before slamming the door and leaving her alone. She walks to the hospital wing herself.

She later learns that this is part of emotional training and that she should be thankful, but by then, she is beyond caring.

.

She is fifteen when she volunteers. She isn't supposed to. She just wants to and it comes out before she can stop it. Another girl goes home crying and cursing.

Clove isn't sorry. Clove is never sorry about things. After all, nobody ever apologized to her.

**.**

On the train, she ignores her district partner. He tries to talk to her, make an alliance, but she has never been good with words, and she doesn't want to speak to anybody, especially those that are below her level. He won't last 'til the end if he doesn't think more and speak less.

Training is not surprising.

The pathetic tributes from the pathetic districts all look scared out of their wits, and Clove has fun intimidating them. She throws knives at a target not because she needs practice, but because she wants to show everyone that she's good. She's better. She will win.

And when the scores come, Clove gloats. Then, she becomes red with anger. Lastly, she decides to kill 12 as soon as she can.

.

Clove does not remember the start of the games, but in the Capitol, the tapes show her to make three kills within forty five seconds.

Everything goes as planned until 11 shows up. He crushes her head with a rock, and it's over.


	2. Progress

until she wakes up.

* * *

**Progress**

* * *

"One day, Clove goes to sleep and wakes up significantly dumber.

The end."

A girl has been told this story every night. The psychologists said that it might help trigger her memory. And yes, her mother wants her daughter to remember her, but there isn't much of a mother to remember, and there isn't much that she wants her child to remember.

"Bad," the girl says from under her covers.

"Some stories end that way, Clove." Her mother bends down to kiss her cheek, but Clove turns her head. "Good night."

Clove does not say anything in return, but perhaps that is because her vocabulary has been reduced to only over a hundred words. It is a pity she didn't use her words before they got knocked out of her brain.

.

Her father tells the story the next night, and he leaves out what he doesn't like about the truth, as usual.

This time, he weaves a tale where his daughter marries a prince and lives in splendor until her death at the old age of ninety two. She has children of her own, and she eats cakes every day. (She also gets out of The Games.)

Clove likes this story, because tonight, she allows her father to kiss her cheek, and she says good night.

"_You got me a manor but I'd trade it for your thoughts back," _her father whispers to her gently, but Clove doesn't understand. Clove doesn't care.

* * *

At first they try to treat her like a child. They buy her a bed-sized crib (so she couldn't wander out and hurt herself or fall out of the bed) a bib, and a lot of stuffed animals.

It soon becomes clear that Clove is not a baby. She is smart and strong enough to climb over the wall of the crib, and she is persistent enough to yell loudly for hours when they put a net over the top.

Clove does not like the stuffed animals, either. When her parents question the psychologists, they say that they may be reminding her of the mutts.

.

The psychologists say, "give her time."

So they are patient, at least for a short while.

.

The parents learn that they are no longer parents. They stopped being parents when she turned five and they sent her to school. They stopped being parents when they allowed it.

They are now babysitters and nanny's for a girl who is just a reminder that victory comes with a price. But that is all right. At least their daughter is not trying to kill them.


	3. Ephemeral

**Ephemeral**

* * *

Tape record:

**Section: **The Hunger Games LXXIV; Day 13 4 hour 9 minute

**Deaths**: 12F, 11M

**Injuries: **2F

**Summary**: After the Feast is announced 2F and 2M go to the cornucopia and wait for the other district tributes to show up. Bloodbath occurs.

**0:00 **12F is hiding in the bushes.

0:22 12F begins to run. She stops.

0:26 5F runs first and gets bag.

0:33 12F resumes running.

0:40 12F grabs bag.

0:44 2F throws a knife.

0:46 12F counters with an arrow. Wrestling.

1:06 12F on bottom. 2F makes wild stabs.

1:23 12F is pinned.

1:25 2F: Where's loverboy? 12F: no answer. 2F slits 12F cheeks into a smile.

1:30 2F cuts both of 12F jugulars before decapitating 12F.

1:35 11M pulls 2F off 12F and hits 2F head with a rock. 2F is limp. 11M tries to hit again, this time with more force.

1:37 2M cuts off 11M left hand before 11M can do anything more. 2M cuts off 11M right hand.

1:40 2M slashes down 11M chest. 2M pins 11M.

1:45 2M carves out 11M heart and holds it in his hand. 2M cuts it in half.

1:50 2F is on ground. 2M runs to 2F and checks 2F skull. 2F is still breathing.

2:00 2M opens up backpack. 2M puts on body armor. 2M opens up 12 backpack. 2M opens up 11 backpack.

2:50 2M collects 12F weapons and backpack items. 2M: we need medicine to lower brain swelling.

6:00 2M receives medicine. 2M gives it to 2F.

**Result:**

Capitol polls show that another Feast has been successful. Ratings rise dramatically, by 30%.

62% want 2M and 2F to win

21% want 2M to win

15% want 12M to win

2% want 5F to win

* * *

There are two other tributes alive; Cato has been keeping track. All students before going into the games, in his district, are trained to be insensitive to killing, but they are not taught to be patient. And Cato wants out.

He is much smarter than Clove had originally given him credit for. He knows that she won't live for much longer without Capitol treatment, but he doesn't want to leave her alone knowing that Foxface is alive.

All students before going into the games, in his district, are trained to make decisions quickly. It is not difficult for him to take a risk and leave Clove under a shady tree. If Clove dies, he tells himself, it will not be his fault. If Clove dies, he says, he will not feel sad.

He knows Foxface is hungry and attempts to trap her. Even the cleverest an make mistakes. Sometimes it comes down to a game with oneself. Can you live through the thirst and hunger or will you take a risk? Or are you risking death by not taking risks?

He leaves with the bow, like he is hunting. All students before going into the games, in his district, are trained in heightening their senses. It is not difficult for him to hear her following him. All students before going into the games, in his district, are trained in all weapons. It is not difficult for him to shoot her.

.

Peeta dies in his own shit, vomit, and blood. His organs all eventually shut down, but his heart fails him much earlier, when he realizes that his love isn't coming back, and that she probably never loved him anyway.

* * *

Cato hears the cannon and worries that it's Clove's. But as he sprints back to the Cornupia, where he left her, a hovercraft picks him up and he is reassured that she is alive and well.

(She is not well, but she is alive for now.)

.

In a district where people rarely value life for what it's worth, a mother sits at her child's bedside and wonders why she played along with the Capitol's games.


End file.
